Besant, WalterFifty Years Ago (1888)London Chatto & Windus 1888 First Edition Hardcover Good Book Original crimson cloth, ruled, blocked and lettered in black and gilt; black endpapers. 137 plates and woodcuts. Lightly marked on cloth, small chip to top corner of spine, a little foxing, good ++. Heavy item which will require some additional postage. A survey of life and society at the start of Queen Victoria's reign, amply illustrated.
Price:
24.00 GBP

Buchanan, RobertThe City of Dream. An Epic Poem (1888)London Chatto & Windus 1888 2nd Edition Hardcover Good Book Frontispiece and vignette on title page. Original black buckram, lettered and decorated in gilt. Corners bumped, lightly scuffed, foxing spots, good. Wolff [893] for first edition in dark blue buckram. Buchanan was a novelist (God and the Man, The Martyrdom of Madeline etc), but also a playwright, and above all, a poet. The City of Dream is a book length poem based (in form) on Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, but written from a position of doubt and uncertainty rather than faith, and with elements of satire against certain prevalent religious doctrines and beliefs. Uncommon.
Price:
25.00 GBP

Charles, Elizabeth RundleThe Ravens and the Angels with Other Stories and Parables (1883)London T. Nelson & Sons 1887 Hardcover Very Good Book The Schönberg-Cotta Series. Original dark turquoise cloth, elaborately blocked in black and lettered in gilt on front board and spine; black endpapers; top and bottom edges stained red. Rubbed on spine tips, otherwise very good. Issued anonymously as "by the author of Chronicles of the Schönberg-Cotta Family". A collection of twenty-four stories and poems.
Price:
18.00 GBP

Corelli, MarieThe Silver Domino; or Side Whispers, Social and Literary (1892)London Lamley & Co. 1893 Hardcover Good Book Eleventh Edition with Author's Note to This Issue. Original black cloth, lettered and decorated (sun and stars) in silver; brown-and-white flower patterned endpapers. Two small chips to cloth (one at head of spine, one half way down), light marks on cloth, good. Satirical essays on contemporary society, authors, publishers and critics, which was published anonymously -- as by one hiding behind a mask (or "domino"). In a section called Writers in Grooves she poured scorn on a series of well-known writers who, she claimed, merely repeat themselves: William Black, William Clark Russell, George Meredith, Ouida, Rhoda Broughton, Mrs Henry Wood amongst others -- and also -- rather more mildly -- one Marie Corelli: "I, personally speaking, find her a distinctly exasperating writer, who is neither here, there, nor anywhere..."
Price:
45.00 GBP

Dowling, RichardIgnorant Essays (1887)London Ward & Downey 1887 1st Edition Hardcover Very Good Book Original brown cloth on bevelled boards, lettered in gilt; black endpapers. A little rubbed at head of spine, otherwise very good. Dowling was an Irish novelist and cousin to the better-known Edward Downey ("F. M. Allen"). Published anonymously. A collection of essays ranging from The Only Real Ghost in Fiction to A Guide in Ignorance.
Price:
25.00 GBP

Dumas, AlexandreThe Crimes of Ali Pacha and OthersLondon Methuen & Co. 1908 First Thus Hardcover Good Book Illustrated. Original blue cloth, with repeated pattern in gilt on front board and spine. Spine lightly sunned, with trace of removed label at foot, trace of removed plates on front pastedown, two small handwritten numbers on verso of title page, otherwise a clean, tight copy, good. Probably ex-library, but no library stamps. A new translation of Dumas 's Celebrated Crimes appeared in four separately titled volumes (of which this is one) in the years 1907 - 8. Contains: Ali Pacha, Massacres of the South, Nisida.
Price:
9.00 GBP

Fletcher, J. S. [Joseph Smith Fletcher]The Wonderful Wapentake (1895)London John Lane, The Bodley Head 1895 1st Edition Hardcover Good Book Illustrated by J. Ayton Symington. Times Book Club binding in brown cloth, lettered in black on boards and spine. Cloth nicked and frayed at head of spine, paper lightly tanned on edges, a little foxing, otherwise good. A collection of journalism, sketches and stories originally published in The Leeds Mercury.
Price:
25.00 GBP